All the world’s a stage or so it seems in this new work from David Bolger and Muirne Bloomer for CoisCéim Dance Theatre exploring how we all put ourselves on show to celebrate, to remember, to honour or sometimes merely to observe the everyday and the ordinary. They do this with an effortless mix of panache, wit and fine movement from the ensemble of six dancers.
Bolger is Artistic Director of Coiscéim and, with Bloomer, he has been the subtle hand behind the creation of some spectacular community and public ceremonies including the Ryder Cup and the Special Olympics. Here the dancers are the choreographers’ community and the dancers (Jen Fleenor, Robert Jackson, Jonathan Mitchell, Monica Munoz Marin, Emma O’Kane), many familiar interpreters of previous work, respond to the ever theatrical and visual sense of Bolger and Bloomer as they embark on creating a new work. For, in a sense, we are witness to a work within a work, a framing of a dance piece from the outside and the inside. Bolger and Bloomer, as choreographers, bring us into their private world; a place of process where the concept of the piece begins to gather pace and then becomes embodied with the dancers. This is underlined by the interplay of the dancers as actors collaborating in the imagining which is fluently shared by both dancemakers.
Pageant is also imbued with an echo of experience while remaining completely fresh and bursting with spontaneity as the directors negotiate a balance between excavating and revisiting a process to create a new work. Cleverly, the notion of presentation and pageantry infuses the dance work from the very beginning. A lone dancer bearing a billowing flag marches the show onto parade in the opening sequence but then we watch our imagined huge arena milling with bodies contract to the real space: to Bloomer and Bolger working around a small table envisioning and plotting the dance moves. They stretch and flex their fingers, beating their hands in diagonals across the table, each (to the audience's amusement), apparently hearing a different drum beat. The rest of the company of dancers join Bloomer and Bolger as all begin to move their bodies on a diagonal line, a faint pattern beginning to emerge.
This move from imagined stadium to a kitchen table is also a nice juxtaposition of the public and the domestic, an undercurrent which runs throughout. In one phase a teen beauty pageant, wittily and lightly drawn, is contrasted with a more private memory: a family gathering, a recollection of children performing a simple ritual. These are illuminated by the individual dancers in counterpointing rhythms, in solos and duets as phrases of movement and phases of life are noted and presented. In this regard, as in others, Sinéad McKenna’s lighting design is a collaborative revelation. Working with space and shadow she creates a seamless move from the personal to the public and back again. Light expands and reduces, in soft waves or in stark sculptural lines, and her creation of a pleated curtain effect, folding and unfolding is mesmerising. The integrated collaboration of the set design and Ivan Birthistle and Doherty’s soundscape with popular song and classical music contributes also to our understanding of dance as both an art and a discipline.
As Bolger waves his imaginary baton, embedded in his ensemble of dancers, we are admiring of the symmetrical and synchronised lines of this dancing corps, moving assuredly to Ravel’s 'Bolero', with its military undertow. They even break ranks; leaning and swivelling one into the other, embarking on perfectly timed near collisions and reassembling for more effortless manoeuvres, as the tempo of the music rises and the imaginary spectators roar. An accomplished and celebratory work from this always lively dance company.
Seona Mac Réamoinn